Important musing

When I invited guests to contribute articles, I forgot to mention that the welcome does not extend to anonymous writers. The reason is straightforward: readers will take what you say seriously only if they know who is saying it. Plus there’s the matter of respecting our readers, people whose attention we seek. And then there’s accountability.

But before I could announce this rule, one Anonymuse, an anonymous person, sent me an article. So I’m going to publish what Anyonmuse has to say. The person has, after all, spent considerable time thinking and writing about an important issue.

Pro Media: you are correct. Civil servants may not want to reveal their identities. And, that’s why I’m allowing anonymous comments for now. But, guest writers are another matter….I would like to post–without censure or edit–whatever is submitted. That, obviously, is easier when guests reveal their identities.

Now some readers make comments that are totally unrelated to the entry or the discussion. This is a somewhat sloppy way of making a point…but it has worked.

And some readers have sent me emails. I try my best to attend to these messages but incorporating them in the blog.

The articles should be judged based on their merit – not on who authored them. Needless to say, no article propagating racism or disrespect to the king, religion and the government or are slanderous or are of a nature that attack persons modesty should find their way into the blog.

Different people have different reasons to hide behind the mask of anonymity. But just because people wish to remain nameless does not mean that their creativity should be choked to silence.

Please bear in mind the likes of us who do not seek recognition but still want to contribute to any discussion that we think is useful and contribute our bit to better understand the issues under discussion.

As the owner of this blog, you are the final authority who will decide what goes in and what stays out. Mine is a suggestion in the hope that some great thinkers and writers are not denied a say – just because they chose to stay anonymous.

By the way, since you can be held responsible for what is posted on your blog and given your standing in the society and the Parliament, I would say that you will be absolutely right to filter out those comments – not just articles – that is irrelevant and nonesensicale and derogatory in nature.

And I just read the article. Chilip or Hun the Attila, what he wrote is damn Good and valid and the absolute truth!!! That is the kind of article we need to keep us reminded where we are going wrong. That is why I say that name is not important – the substance is.

Your Excellency, exercise your right of ownership to filter our grubby stuff – but please let people post good stuff. The Annonymuse’s article qualifies as a darn good one!

Firstly, my thanks to the Opposition Leader for allowing my unpolished letter and acceding to my request to remain anonymous.

I have intentionally worded my letter rather harshly, because these issues are close to my heart, and also to provoke thinking. Even though I have left, I still have treasured friends in Bhutan with whom I maintain regular contact. My fears about them being offended by my writing are probably unfounded, but I’d rather err on the side of caution.

I absolutely respect your right to decide what can/cannot be published on your blog. It would be impropriate of me to use comments to side-step your decision, so until another platform is available, my thoughts shall remain unpublished for now.

it might also be helpful if readers could leave comments or replies to guest articles. they do present stirring topics and issues – a rich repository for lengthy and lively discussions from the readers.

Anonymuse has nothing to lose or gain. He is a foreigner and doesn’t live here anymore. But he wrote this article because we loves our country and his conscience would not let him remain silent. It is our (Bhutanese people’s) future, and our children’s future that’s at stake.

I think what Anonymuse wrote is just a tip of the iceberg. I think there is so much more…

Wake up Bhutanese people!!!

We cannot move forward with business as usual, and the mindset of the past. We have to make sure that our leaders stop squandering the opportunities that we still have to build a brighter future.

“If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself”. James Madison.

Casting blame and gossiping in the comfort of living rooms is not enough; citizens should also be able to influence those whom they blame. It’s imperative to make the government more responsive to the wishes of the people. Solidarity walk laid the foundation for “peaceful assembly” rather than “idiotization (conscious rejection of the obligations of a citizen)”.
Solidarity Walk is a reward of a political ideology called democracy. It was never about “visibility” or about being “the messiah” nor about being “a social misfit”. It is a cheap shot to vilify and character-assassinate the organizers. Don’t be malicious. Yes, criticism is a part of life and they are welcome. Solidarity Walk was an expression of values and the criticisms must response to values not personal attacks. In no way was it to take advantage of political process. Solidarity Walk was about “deepening democracy beyond its electoral form”. It’s about “freedom of speech” and “the right to information” which is enshrined in the Constitution. Lack of information breeds corruption. Obstructing the flow of information is one way of hiding the mistakes the government makes. When the actions of public officials are not subject to scrutiny by the public opportunity for official misconduct become more attractive. Lack of information and proper management of political system creates a distorted policy environment which further creates opportunity for public officials to manipulate rules for their own benefit.
Solidarity Walk is one way of maintaining the integrity of political system. Political institutions help determine limits on the arbitrary exercise of power by the politicians and bureaucrats. Press freedom and civil society is one of the institutions that matter in fighting corruption. Both represent the people. They represent the collective voice of the people. They are our voices. Is it a crime to make your voices heard? Then I am sure democracy is a crime too.
If the government is not accountable to the people democracy will never be fully realised. Remember that state building also refers to promoting popular trust by increasing the trustworthiness of political institutions and by increasing the accountability of government to ordinary people.
A nation, whether democratic or not, must maintain its integrity. That’s one of the basic responsibilities of a nation towards its people. A nation breathes through its citizens. The people are the “life” of a nation. Protection of a life must be the basic responsibility of a nation. After all when we die what do we have. We just own a story. The nation must make sure that the story of every Bhutanese is worth of himself or herself. Stories of 600,000 Bhutanese make the history of Bhutan. Your story is as important as my story. Solidarity Walk just made an attempt to make those stories better.
It is better to live for a year with integrity and principle than grovel for hundred years in a safe house of cowardice and ignorance. A life lived in fear is a life half lived. Life is defined by the courage you have. Only action can give true meaning to the written or spoken word.
Democracy is a way of life whether we live in a democratic country or not, whether we live by the constitution or not, whether we have democratic attitudes or not.
Is there a time for equity and justice? The time is always now.

We are the most privileged generation in the history of Bhutan. We got democracy as a gift. And now we have the most important job—the job to make democracy successful.
The greatest weakness of a man is not believing, when they doubt about everything. People with little faith will never find anything to believe in. They do nothing but blabber under a nick and talk in the comfort of living rooms.
A nation with complacent people and which promotes mediocrity is in danger of itself. A nation puts itself in danger when its people have nothing to believe in, when its people cannot stand by an idea, when its people have no courage. All these only lead to misdiagnosis, witch-hunt and personal attacks.
When the time comes do you think these people will stand for the nation? No! Because, at the first place they never had anything to believe in. They don’t know where they stand and that’s why they are hiding under a nick. How will they fight when they don’t even have an iota of courage? How will they fight when they don’t know what is equality, liberty and justice? How will they stand for fellow human being when their only thought is to take away freedom from another human being? He who cannot fight for truth and fairness will not even fight for himself, let alone fight for a group of people, society or the nation.
Only idiots and ignorant will kneel down before the tyranny of majority. Majority doesn’t decide what is right and wrong. Your conscience does. Why should a citizen surrender his conscience to a legislature? Solidarity Walk was done in the spirit for tomorrow, in the spirit of brotherhood and in the spirit of solidarity.
It’s up to us. Do we want to promote mediocrity and complacency? Are you saying that we should mind our own business and do nothing? Okay, I’ll mind my own business, be corrupt and earn as much as I can and stay quiet. Are we promoting that kind of national mind-set?
We cannot create peace with desolation. We cannot create peace by muffling the voices. We cannot create peace by keeping an idea down. We can create peace only by truth and fairness.

Whatever Anonymuse has to say will come at a cost of nothing. It has nothing to do with him/her. It is our problem and we must work towards solving it by ourselves. If we involve external so-called observers from outside, than there would not have been problems like those faced by Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to certain extend. Westerners are very unpredictable. Rightly pointed out by H.H. Dalai Lama in one of his interviews that had there been no Americans there would not have been Saddam like being in Iraq. US troops are merely survived by Talibans. If today they capture Mr. Osama Bin Laden, than tomorrow US troops will lose their jobs.
However, my point is, how many of volunteers coming to Bhutan actually devote voluntary works? Anonymous made good observations and asked us to slam search in Kuensel relating to an issue. Now I want to ask him search in Kuensel and how many result do you expect to see with search relating to cultural disruptions by foreigners to our country. We are seeing a lot of foreigners coming to Bhutan in the name of volunteers. Do we really know their intentions of coming to our beautiful country? I respect those genuine volunteers helping Bhutan, but few disgraced volunteers spoil the whole basket. We meet a lot of volunteers at discotheque, bars and even some are seen wooing innocent Bhutanese women who are jobless on the street. And these foreigners have actually come in the name of volunteer work in Bhutan.
We Bhutanese are compassionate by nature and when we see people from outside coming to Bhutan assisting, helping, we incline towards them not realizing the unpleasant intentions behind them. We become slaves to them, working for them instead of them working for us, because that is what they have come here for. And some of our folks who are after wealth immediately cling to such kind of chillips, because the only thing that associates with ‘chillip’ is wealth for some. That is why those who are married to ‘chillips’ are proud not because of the relation but because of the wealth and ‘opportunity’ to go outside.
There are a lot of foreigners who come quite often to Bhutan, some more than necessarily required just to stir cultural imbalances and promote what is not in our culture. Today together with internet, TV and foreigners pouring into our country, we are witnessing culture changes like tattooing, body piercing, skin heads, hooligans and many more. A foreigner with a tattoo is a health volunteer in Bhutan, somebody who excessively indulges into alcohol is a volunteer with an international agency, and these people are here not for work but freedom from their hassles in life back home. We will realize only one day that besides the policy of “High quality low volume” tourist in the country there is a need to frame regulations for people who come in the name of volunteer works, personal guests etc.

Yes, you are absolutely right. It cost me nothing more than an evening to scribble down my thoughts. And yes, whether Bhutan sinks or swims has nothing to do with me.

I have no reasons except that I cherished the memory of having spent a little time in your country and I have made many dear friends whose future I care deeply about.

Parden my candour, but saying “Westerners are very unpredictable” is about as appropriate as saying “Bhutanese are very lazy”. And this is from the chillip who is not a “westerner”.

Would my opinion be any more or less valid if I were an expatriate instead of volunteering? I have to plead ignorance to the issue of foreign influence because most in my circle were locals. And all the foreigners (volunteers or working expatriates) I’ve met were kind and generous people. I must have been fortunate to have not met a single foreign “bad egg” in my time in Bhutan.

The assumption that discotheque / bars / tattoos = bad is somewhat disconcerting to me even though I only drink socially and have not the guts to get a tattoo.

I am, however, curious about this issue of cultural disruptions from foreigners. Are there any articles on Kuensel/Bhutan Observer that you can share links to?

I think the issues raised by anonymuse are indeed important, something we should be thinking about. We all know we have certain problems, and that we need to solve it. Among ourselves, we crib about the system, and have a thousand complaints, but enter a ‘chillip’ and his criticism are suddenly unacceptable.
I think the more important issue is not who make the criticisms, but what the criticisms are. And really look at them.
In the end, we want our country to be the best possible, and the best thing is that we can right every wrong in our country. We are small, everyone is seen and heard, and known. And i like to think that essentially, we are good people, people who we can have faith on. We need to take criticisms from anyone in a better spirit, and really look at issues.
Meanwhile, drug peddling, and even rape are serious issues we need to tackle. Every new idea/concern must be looked into.